The Soviet Russian 11th Red Army holds a military parade in Tbilisi, 25 February 1921: photographer unknown; image by Kober, 6 December 2005 (Photomuseum of Georgia)

Self-portraitof Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, created by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii as part of his work to document the Russian Empire from 1904 to 1916: photo by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, 1912 (Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-GorskiiCollection, Library of Congress)

Joseph Stalin (1878-1953): Morning, published under the pseudonym Soselo in the Georgian journal Iveria, 1895

The rocket factory photos are indeed insane. Speaking of which, for obvious reasons I'm always drawn to look closely at the eyes, gaze and countenance of these killers. After reading Stalin's poem and looking at Hitler's paintings, I felt compelled to take my favorite Christmas present, The Cultural Revolution Cookbook (it's great) down from the shelf and remind myself of Mao's truly poetic and focused observation on the bean curd he enjoyed at the Huogongdian restaurant in the city of Changsha in 1958: "The strong-smelling bean curd at Huogongdian smells foul, but tastes delicious." One assumes that thus fortified, Mao was able to sally forth and get back to his serious population reduction work. Curtis

It's one of a triad -- a little axis of evil bio-unit, one might say -- we've been thinking about here.

The second, obviously (see previous post), was a life of the Failed Artist; and the third a life of a character even weirder and darker (but is that possible?), if not tougher than the rest... no not Van Gogh but Richard Nixon.

Even beyond the days of bloody hatefilled glory there remained surviving pockets of Hitlerites and Stalinists -- obscure, yet, for those who knew about such things, still identifiable by their markings, slithering out to hatch their larvae round the club (did I mean to say globe?); but the Nixonists and Nixonites...

Always beware the invisible threat.

I have a friend whose life has been ineradicably altered by mites. One can't even see them. But they make themselves known by their effects,it seems... and could it be... lurking somewhere under the rug at one of those caucus-thingies, a whole colony, massing ... oh no!

I tell you the more I think, the more I feel that the only sort of -ist I would ever care to be is an Aditya-ist.

Please note that we can help out in the mite department. Caroline diagnosed and saved the parakeets from a serious mite attack. No one should have their life ineradicably altered by "mite-mites" (who you have described accurately and well). As far as human mites go, that's another story. Curtis